Casey Abrams received the only standing ovation from the judges last night on American Idol! Casey went against Jimmy Iovine‘s advice and performed Nat King Cole‘s “Nature Boy” from the 1984 film, The Boy with the Green Hair.

Casey took the stage with his upright bass, sang a jazzy version of the song and after the judges begged for an encore!

“I’ve got to say, at the beginning I was nervous,” Jennifer Lopez admitted. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s not going to win any popularity contest with this song.’ But as it goes on I really started thinking and I thought you know what’s beautiful about this season is that we have gospel, rock, country, pop, jazz. We have all of it. What makes a really, really great artist is that being an American Idol you don’t have to be a pop star.”

“Good job on the notes,” she added. “Those notes at the end!”

Randy Jackson said “There’s a place for this, and a place for you. I thought it was brilliant man. I thought it was absolutely genius.”

“The world cannot live by pop stars alone,” he added.

And Steven Tyler agreed saying, “You are an artist in the truest sense of the word.”